Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Proposes New Surface Nanostructuring Technique

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has furnished theoretical and experimental results of ultrashort laser ablation performed in noble metals in vacuum. A molecular dynamics (MD) based numerical model has been developed to describe the laser pulse interaction with metal target.

The experimental analyses have indicated that the ablated material is made of nanoparticles and single atoms. During the material decomposition stage, the formation of nanoparticles takes place because of the fragmentation and phase explosion of the overheated material. From the experimental results, it is noted that the laser wavelength is an efficient parameter for controlling the size of nanoparticles.

The theoretical basis of a new surface nanostructuring technique was developed using Finite Difference Time Domain simulation. The nanostructuring technique has been proposed on the basis of the field enhancement effect in the near field zone of nanoparticle at an efficient plasmon excitation condition. The confirmation of the theoretical findings is done by the nanostructuring of Si, Au, and SiO2. The results indicate that the proposed technique can be used as a precise nanomodification tool for different materials.